Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 05:43 PM

It's easy Bill. Grant the boys a few favours in exchange for keeping the secret, take a supply of contraceptives, and Bob's your uncle.
Cheers, Joy (who's never actually tried it, mind)

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: GUEST,p.ionad
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 03:20 PM

I know the line as:'Your cage shall be decked with beads of gold, And hung in the willow tree.'
....then again I know it as Love Henry not Henry Lee, so......

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: Joybell
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 07:16 PM

The original question on this thread was, "I've been trying to decipher a line from Dick Justice's version of "Henry Lee" -- the one on Harry Smith's Anthology -- for awhile."

I know there's a lot of waffle here -- some by me -- but I believe that my original answer still stands. The Dick Justice record, owned by Art Rosenbaum, back in the 60s, had him singing this version as:

Fly down fly down little bird she cried
Fly down to my right knee.
Your cage shall be of the beaten gold,
Adorned all silvery."

Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 09:30 PM

Nuts to you lot! The words as I remember them are,

Fly down, fly down, you pretty little bird
And sit upon my knee,
And I'll buy you a cage of beaten gold
With spokes of ivory.

I can't fly down, and I won't fly down
And sit ypon your knee.
For as you have done to your own truelove
I'm afraid you would do to me.

Well I wish I had my bended bow,
With an arrow in the string,
I'd shoot it through your tender heart
So no one would hear you sing.

O if you had your bended bow
With an arrow in the string,
I'd fly so high above your mark-
And there my song I'd sing!

Note: The vowel sound is the same, so I suppose a long-ago Someone heard "door" instead of "spokes.

Anyway- it's a beautiful song, if a bloody one. It's on my Smithsonian-Folkways ballads CD.      Love to all, Jean Ritchie

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: Joybell
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 04:17 PM

Thank you for the love, Jean. It's a great thrill to receive it. It's also a thrill to share the love of this beautiful song.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: tdcrjeff
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 03:32 AM

I've been captivated by the version of Henry Lee that Crooked Still has recently released on their "Some Strange Country" album. Here's a youtube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx4HzVP91lM

The lyrics as printed in the booklet:

Lie down lie down love, Henry Lee
And stay with me this night
You will have my candle and coal
My fire's burning bright

I won't lie down I can't lie down
Nor stay all night with thee
There's a lady ten times fairer than you
In Barnard's hall for me

He's leaning o'er her soft pillow
To give her a kiss so sweet
But her little pen knife held keen and sharp
She's wounded him full deep

I will lie down I must lie down
I will come in said he
There is no lady in Barnard's hall
That I love better than thee
I love more better than thee

Oh live my love Lord Henry she said
For an hour or two or three
And all these cards about my waist
I'd freely give to thee

All them cards about your waist
They do no good to me
Love don't you see my own card's flash
Come twinkling at my knee

She took him by his long yellow hair
She dragged him by his feet
She threw him down a cool dark well
Full fifty fathoms deep

Lie down lie down you pretty little bird
Lie down all on my knee
No, a girl who'd murder her own true love
Would kill a little bird like me

I wish I had my bending bow
My arrow and my string
I'd shoot my dart right through your heart
So you'd no longer sing

I wish you had your bending bow
Your arrow and your string
I'd fly on back to Barnard's hall
You'd always hear me sing


So it avoids the whole golden cage and property etc by skipping that verse, and in the process making it a little confusing standing on it's own. What's this bird got to do with it? :-)

But my question - what is this part about "cards about my waist"? What does that mean?

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: Brian Peters
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 09:19 AM

Interesting version that I hadn't come across before - I wonder where Crooked Still found it? However, those 'cards' look mighty like mondegreens to me. A version from San Jose, CA, has the following verses:

What have you done my pretty fair maid?
What have you done, said he
For don't you see my own heart's blood
Comes trickling down to my knee?

It's not an unimaginable leap from 'heart's blood' to 'cards flash', and 'trickling' to 'twinkling'. And the idea that she begs him to live - from your other 'cards' verse - is contained in another verse from the Ca. version (although it isn't consecutive):

Oh live, oh live, Young Henry, she cried
One half an hour for me
And all the doctors in Yorkshire land
Shall be at the cure of thee

It's just possible that the cards being 'around the waist' harks back to an old Scots version in which the victim has a hunting horn around his waist, but that's a bigger leap of the imagination.

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: tdcrjeff
Date: 14 Jul 10 - 07:58 PM

I Googled "cards about my waist" and surprisingly got a single solitary hit (well other than this thread). Peggy Seeger did the song on "Heading for Home" and is virtually identical to the Crooked Still version so that's likely where they got it.
http://www.peggyseeger.com/listen-buy/heading-for-home/heading-for-home-notes

One glaring difference is the twinkling at me knee verse, where Peggy's does call out "heart's blood." But there is still reference to cards around the waist.

All them cards about your waist
They'd do no good to me;
Love, don't you see my own heart's blood
Come twinkling at my knee, (2)

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: tdcrjeff
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 10:02 PM

"I Googled "cards about my waist" and surprisingly got a single solitary hit (well other than this thread). Peggy Seeger did the song on "Heading for Home" and is virtually identical to the Crooked Still version so that's likely where they got it."

I just heard a live recording of Crooked Still playing the song and Aoife stated that they did indeed learn it from Peggy.

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 04:27 PM

As i see it, the Murderer is afraid that the bird will tell others ( an allusion to Eccl. 10:20) about this otherwise secret crime. Thus the attempt to coax into range, then rage and wishful threats at failing to do so.

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 21 - 11:23 PM

Subject: RE: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jan 24 - 08:47 PM

I've always visualised "cards about my waist" as something along the lines of what in the Victorian period was called a chatelaine see https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-killer-mobile-device-for-victorian-women/ and https://candicehern.com/regency-world/glossary/chatelaine/